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by renaissance



Series: #jbweek [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Camping, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-18 23:52:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2366582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renaissance/pseuds/renaissance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brienne tries to tell him she’s grateful, but she can’t quite find the words.</p>
            </blockquote>





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**Author's Note:**

> Day 2's prompt is "one quote." No prizes for guessing, no hints. Enjoy! C:

They pitch tents by the lake, because it’s starting to get dark, and Brienne assures the campers that the sunrise is worth having to put up with the insects and the noisy birds. Still, she tells them, there’s nothing wrong in spending some time with insects and birds, and being able to identify the different types. Jaime—the other instructor—interrupts with a bag of marshmallows, and the suggestion that they tell ghost stories.

Brienne doesn’t know who assigned her and Jaime to the same expedition, but she’d like to find them and write them a strongly worded email—although she wouldn’t be too rude, because she _loves_ being a camp councillor and taking teenagers on hikes, and she wouldn’t want to get into any trouble for being a bit of an agitator. Jaime’s the rude one. He’s—well, he’s not a bad person, she thinks, but he’s bloody annoying. He’s always interrupting her and acting like he knows more than her—he’s older, and he’s been a councillor for longer, but that’s no excuse to act like he’s somehow more important.

After the tents are up, Jaime lights a fire and gets out the marshmallows. It’s a cold evening, and Brienne’s glad for the warmth, but his “ghost” story is just pushing the boundaries of Too Lewd For Children—so naturally, they love it, and Brienne feels nothing short of uncomfortable the entire time. She fidgets with her twig until her marshmallow is almost burnt completely. It’s inedible.

A breeze puts out the fire, and by then, the campers are starting to get sleepy, so Brienne suggests they get an early night. They’ve got a long day of hiking ahead of them, anyway. Jaime reckons they could stay up another hour—he hasn’t finished his story, after all. Brienne tells him that everyone’s had enough of his story, but she’s drowned out by a chorus to the contrary.

Revelling in the fact that he’s _won_ , Jaime gets to his feet to act out the last part of his story. He seems drunk on the atmosphere, on the ash in the air and the scent of the trees, and the birds quiet their screeches to let him talk. He’s a showman, and Brienne’s jealous of that. She’s always wished that she had the same easy confidence. In the end, it doesn’t really matter how many times you’ve hiked the trail—if you can convince the campers you know the way, they’ll follow you anywhere.

Everyone is so involved in the story—Jaime included—that none of them notice when Jaime takes a step too close to the edge of the lake and falls backwards into the black water. There’s a splash and a ripple as the reflections of the stars scatter for him, and Brienne jumps to her feet, her mind running through everything she learnt in the Crisis Management seminar.

Thankfully, the water’s shallow near the banks, but Jaime’s being dramatic, acting like he’s going to drown, so Brienne rolls up her sleeves and extends her hands. He takes them, and she hauls him onto land. He staggers to his feet, laughing. The campers start laughing too, and Brienne gives them a look, but they don’t stop.

Jaime makes some comment about sleeping in the open air to dry off, and Brienne makes a point of mentioning what a bad idea it is. He laughs it off as a joke and climbs into his  tent, but Brienne’s starting to get a bit annoyed. Well, she’s always annoyed when she’s in the same room as Jaime, but out in the wild, it’s hard to escape him. At least the councillors have their own tents.

It’s late when Brienne finally gets to sleep, so of course she wakes up earlier than everyone else to the sound of two birds fighting over breakfast. One of the campers is snoring, and Brienne takes her socks off and dips her feet in the lake. Jaime pokes his head through his tent flaps a moment later and says something rude—Brienne’s not really paying attention, but she turns and glares at him anyway.

They wake the campers and eat a quick breakfast before packing everything away and setting off for the mountain. It’s a winding, uphill path, and Brienne’s walked it so many times, but she’d never show off like Jaime’s doing, telling the campers he could walk it with his eyes closed. She lets him take the lead, and she takes the rear, making sure that no-one falls behind.

And although it’s slow going at first, they’re making good time, until one of the campers has to stop for her asthma, and Brienne rifles through her first aid pack for the inhaler—the zip had been hanging open, though, and it’s fallen out. The girl’s got her own inhaler, but it’s running low, and Brienne offers to go back and look for one she had. It won’t do to have something missing from the first aid pack, after all. Of course, Jaime says it’ll be fine, that he can lead the group on his own. Brienne tells him to be careful.

She has good eyesight, usually, but looking for an inhaler on a dirt path is analogous to the needle and the haystack. It feels like hours, although her watch is telling her that it’s minutes. She starts to lose her concentration.

Before she knows what’s happening, her foot slips through a crack in some rocks and she falls on her face. There’s no-one around, so she allows herself to swear in frustration. She lies face down on the ground for a good minute before trying to pull herself upright, but her foot’s stuck in the rocks, and she reasons that she’ll twist her ankle if she does anything drastic, so she lies on her front for a few more minutes trying to think of a sensible solution. Her thoughts are interrupted by shouting, and the voices she hears are coming closer.

It’s Jaime and the rest of the campers—they came back for her. Brienne feels oddly warm as Jaime helps her to her feet, and supports her as they limp back to the lake. It’s too late to keep going up the mountain, and Jaime makes the call that they’ll turn back. Brienne tries to tell him she’s grateful, but she can’t quite find the words.

Jaime and a few of the campers help pitch her tent while she elevates her foot and thinks about the fact that one of the girls has asthma and she still hasn’t found the spare inhaler. The campers beg for ghost stories again, and Jaime tells them they need an early night.

Brienne goes to sleep more confused than she has ever been.

And the next morning, she’s the first one up again, and her foot’s feeling better, so she sticks her feet in the lake. It’s a still morning, the air is fresh, and the sunrise is _beautiful_.

Jaime sits down next to her and comments on the sunrise.

Brienne takes a moment to gather her thoughts, wrapping her arms around her legs. She asks him why he turned back. She tells him she would have been fine, that she would easily have made it up, that she was just taking her time. So why did he come back for her?

Jaime laughs it off, starts weaving some elaborate story about her saving him from drowning, but he cuts himself off mid-sentence, shrugging.

“I dreamed of you,” he says.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment!


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